This is a newbie question. Can someone confirm: a resistor on its own is useless. True or false? I mean, I can't do anything with a resistor alone, or is there something that can be done with it?
Sorry, I know the question is too newbie.
Electronic – Can a resistor on its own do anything
resistors
Related Solutions
I've seen a few manufacturers that make their high precision metal film resistors blue and their generic paper/carbon ones pale brown, but I'd guess it's not a universal thing...it's like when Walkers (Lays) crisps messed around with the colour flavour combos, everyone had to relearn cheese & onion and salt & vinegar grrrr!
As per the schematic provided, if all 3 inputs were sharing a resistor, then any of the lines being pulled high via the switch would raise all 3 lines to high, countering the purpose of the design - the MCU would not know which switch position is selected.
A common way of reducing part count, not resistor count, for such designs is to use a common bus resistor network or array:
(from here)
These are available as through-hole SIP/DIP as well as SMD, in a variety of resistor counts, depending on your needs. The bus pin is connected to ground, and the other pins are connected to the respective MCU inputs as in your schematic.
(from here)
(from here)
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Best Answer
Yes, a resistor by itself is useless. It plays an important part in circuits though.
Resistors limit current in your circuit. For example, if you want to light up an LED, you typically can't just connect an LED to a battery because the current is not limited. With a resistor in series with the LED, you can control the current going through the LED. Also, different values of resistors will give you different currents, which also gives you different LED brightnesses.